Public awareness, concerns, and priorities about anthropogenic impacts on marine environments

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Gelcich, Stefan, Buckley, Paul, Pinnegar, John K., Chilvers, Jason D., Lorenzoni, Irene, Terry, Geraldine, Guerrero, Matías, Castilla, Juan Carlos, Valdebenito, Abel, Duarte, Carlos M.
• Other Authors: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (Chile), Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo (Chile), European Commission
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 2014
• Subjects: Attitudes; Europe; Ocean health; Ocean impacts; Ocean literacy; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/127968; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1417344111; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003339; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002848; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100005886; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780

© 2014, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. © 2014, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Numerous international bodies have advocated the development of strategies to achieve the sustainability of marine environments. Typically, such strategies are based on information from expert groups about causes of degradation and policy options to address them, but these strategies rarely take into account assessed information about public awareness, concerns, and priorities. Here we report the results of a pan-European survey of public perceptions about marine environmental impacts as a way to inform the formation of science and policy priorities. On the basis of 10,106 responses to an online survey from people in 10 European nations, spanning a diversity of socioeconomic and geographical areas, we examine the public's informedness and concern regarding marine impacts, trust in different information sources, and priorities for policy and funding. Results show that the level of concern regarding marine impacts is closely associated with the level of informedness and that pollution and overfishing are two areas prioritized by the public for policy development. The level of trust varies greatly among different information sources and is highest for academics and scholarly publications but lower for government or industry scientists. Results suggest that the public perceives the immediacy of marine anthropogenic impacts and is highly concerned about ocean pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification. Eliciting public awareness, concerns, and priorities can enable scientists and funders to understand how the public relates to marine environments, frame impacts, and align managerial and policy priorities with public demand. The research reported on in this paper formed part of the Climate Change and European Marine Ecosystem Research project funded under the EU’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7-2009-1-244132). S.G. and J.C.C. thank the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios Doc progamme of the ...